Like Amy's class, my class has been prepping for the MEAP for the past few weeks and very little emphasis has been placed on reading, other than reading writing samples and directions.
Other than the MEAP prep, one of the few reading tasks that my CT incorporates during our
Literacy time is Read Aloud. Read Aloud was one of the first tasks that I took over and it has been going great! I have read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume and am reading Gregor the Overlander to my students right now. They really enjoy our Read Aloud time and beg me not to stop reading once I find a nice, "edge of your seat" place to stop. What's nice about the Read Aloud activity is that you can include and teach reading strategies to the students while you read. At the beginning of every Read Aloud, I always have the students remind me of what happened in the story the previous day. We recap the big events that took place and also make text-to-text connections between Gregor and Fourth Grade Nothing. The students are getting really good at finding those connections! I also have them make inferences on what they think certain scenarios or vocabulary terms mean. Today, a girl raised her hand while I was reading and said "Ms. S, I know why he's called an Overlander now! It's because he lives above the Underland and the crawlers call people Overlanders." In the story, we never get the real definition of an Overlander, so it was great for her to make that inference within the text! After about 20 minutes of me reading to the class, we predict what events might happen next so they can practice making predictions with the text. It's also nice for the students to hear my different expressions and voice while I read the story. It gives them a different visual that they might not have while reading it to themselves. I think we have a great Read Aloud activity set up in my classroom.
If I were to try out some of the book club techniques, I would group my students more frequently and maybe test out the fishbowl activity. I think it's a great idea to put your students into groups while reading because you're able to mix different opinions, ethnicities, personalities, and reading abilities within each group. Through experiencing these differences, a student's reading comprehension and perception could drastically change. I think the fishbowl activity looks really interesting and like something I would be willing to try out. It's great to include new activities for the students to use while reading so that their routine never gets old and boring.
Well, that's it for now. See you all tomorrow!
Nice read aloud books! I remember Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing as a fantastic book, one that I really enjoyed...but I can't remember a thing about it other than that Fudge steals much glory. Now, Gregor the Overlander I know nothing about...except this: it's written by Suzanne Collins, the same author as the hunger games books! I loooooved those books, so tell me, is Gregor good?
ReplyDeleteIt's great to be reading these very enjoyable books for your read aloud. It's cool too that you are able to mingle it with some comprehension strategies. Sometimes I'm torn with this; Making meaning does a good job of taking texts and doing all sorts of connections with them so...should read aloud just be about the good old fashioned enjoyment of a book? Do I really want my students writing stuff down like BCP might have us doing for read aloud while I'm trying to read a good book? NO! I want them enjoying it! Or at least that's the argument I present to myself. I also see how incorporating teaching points into something that the students meet with excitement can be a powerful teaching tool. I like your mix though...not to heavy on instruction and definitely definitely enjoyable from the sounds of it!